Successful Virtual Miscellaneous Charge Order (vMCO) Sunset

More than 120 delegates from over 60 airlines, IT providers and GDSs attended the final EMD Task Force in early February. The meeting highlighted the highs and lows of the EMD implementation over the past four years. To date more than 120 airlines have achieved EMD capability in their direct sales channel, of which more than 60 were able to deploy EMD in the IATA Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP). It is expected that in 2014, the industry will witness an increase to 50 million EMD issued by over 160 airlines.

The vMCO sunset has proven to be an important step towards the complete EMD implementation in BSP. Thanks to the support of GDSs no serious issue was reported during the “switch-off” and all impacted agents who were not able to issue EMD were given instructions on alternative solutions for the interim period.

Next in line: vMPD

Now that the vMCO is behind us, the next challenge will be the virtual Multipurpose Document (vMPD). In anticipation of the progressive vMPD sunset in 2014 both IT providers and GDS’ presented their status as well as roadmap to meet the deadline. Without a doubt, the workload will be heavy and the pipeline is already full.

Some airlines have voiced their concern regarding their challenges from IT system readiness to GDS slot availability: a successful outcome of the vMPD sunset will certainly require all of the industry stakeholders to work together. Nevertheless, the Task Force survey confirmed that some 80% of responding airlines will be able to meet the 31 October 2014 deadline. The rest will be able to use alternative solutions to sunset vMPD before acquiring their full EMD capability.

Finally, a number of other topics from messaging complications to interline difficulties were widely discussed. However, a series of recommendations have been made and these will be instrumental in supporting the industry implementation to fully achieve 100% EMD in IATA BSP in 2014.